Missing Gwinnett County man strangled, dismembered, attacker gets life sentence a decade later

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA – A 30-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering the father of his ex-wife’s first child more than a decade ago and destroying the man’s remains.

Gwinnett County jurors on Tuesday found Jeffry Emerson Moulder of Cumming, GA  guilty of malice murder and two counts of felony murder for the January 2015 strangulation death of Samuel Waters, who was 21 at the time. A judge sentenced Moulder to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before reaching a guilty verdict on all charges.

“Samuel Waters’ family is able to get justice after 10 long years,” Gwinnett District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said. “Our goal was to ensure that this family was able to get closure for this tragic loss. This was not an easy case to close because the body was never found. But our team was able to successfully piece together evidence to prove the defendant’s guilt.”

Samuel Waters was last seen on Jan. 4, 2015, and was classified as a missing person case until 2021.

Moulder’s first wife, Rebecca Bell, had a child with Waters before Moulder and Bell were married. When Bell was contemplating divorcing Moulder, he tried to bring Waters back into Bell’s life to avoid paying child support. Bell said the only way to save their marriage, however, was to completely remove Waters from her life. 

According to the investigation, Moulder subsequently lured Waters to a back road in Lawrenceville, where he strangled him to death. He then dismembered Waters’ body and disposed of the remains in multiple areas near Lake Lanier after unsuccessfully attempting to burn the body.

After killing Waters, Moulder told at least seven people, including his first wife, Bell, and second wife about Waters’ murder. According to testimony from the trial, he also described the locations where he buried parts of the body.

In 2021, after a heated argument in which Moulder strangled his second wife until she was unconscious, the woman separated from him and told Lawrenceville Police about Moulder’s confession of murder. Investigators searched the areas Moulder described with cadaver dogs, but were unable to find any human remains. The cadaver dogs did, however, discover evidence that human remains had once been in one of the burial locations.

During the trial, a cadaver dog expert described for the jury how the animals could identify where remains had potentially deteriorated and thus were imperceptible to the human eye. Also, during trial, prosecutors played an audio recording of Moulder strangling his second wife until she passed out while demanding that she stop recording the argument. 

Gwinnett County Assistant District Attorneys Don Geary and Angela Mattozzi prosecuted the case. DA’s investigators Damien Cruz and Andrew Whaley and victim witness advocate Korinne Haskins assisted with the case. The Lawrenceville Police Department was also instrumental in closing the case.

Pictured: Jeffry Emerson Moulder was sentenced to life in prison for the 2015 murder of 21-year Samuel Waters. Booking photo via Gwinnett County District Attorney’s Office.